"Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay there will be double!" - The Clash

The unrest in Egypt has been boiling for the past few weeks, as protestors took to the streets and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak contemplated whether to stay in power... or step down.    And any time there’s uncertainty, there is sure to be movement in the markets. For example, oil prices rose Thursday morning after rumors spread through the media that Mubarek would step down later that night. In the end, Mubarek didn’t officially step down until Friday morning, at which point the streets of Cairo erupted in celebration, oil moved lower again, and the Stock market ticked up in hopes that the uncertainty in Egypt would soon be a memory. Of course, Cairo wasn’t the only place that has been reacting to uncertainty lately - and we don’t have to look any further than Mortgage Bonds and home loan rates as an example. To say that Bonds have had a rough time lately would be a bit of an understatement, as Bond pricing and home loan rates worsened very significantly over the past week and a half. By the end of last week, however, Bonds looked like they were beginning to stabilize... at least for now.  Impacting Bonds last week were a number of remarks by Fed members, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke who spoke on Capitol Hill, saying it will take several more years before the unemployment rate returns to a more normal level, and that lawmakers need to act to reduce the country’s deficit.